Unexplained gimbal lock

GadgetGuy · Oct 25, 2023

shb said:
I could probably go there but not planning on it right now. DJI wants me to send it in but I really don't want to. Seems like there must me a easy way to get the gimbal back to normal.

You need to activate the camera's "turtle mode." Except DJI hasn't created one yet for end users! It will stay hidden in its shell until returned to DJI for unlocking! As I understood, your last one that locked up like this was only unlocked by replacing the entire drone.

shb · Oct 25, 2023

GadgetGuy said:
your last one that locked up like this was only unlocked by replacing the entire drone.

No that's not true. I still have the same drone. DJI's repair cost was only $164. There was nothing wrong with the camera/gimbal.

MS Coast · Oct 25, 2023

shb said:
No that's not true. I still have the same drone. DJI's repair cost was only $164. There was nothing wrong with the camera/gimbal.

Well, why not just send this one to DJI for repair and be done with it?

shb · Oct 25, 2023

MS Coast said:
Well, why not just send this one to DJI for repair and be done with it?

Because it's a pain in the ***. I have to get all the information. Goto DHL, and they are very slow. Pay $50 for shipping. Wait two or three weeks for the "repair", even though nothing is broken. Pay $100 rip off fee to Philippine customs. Last time they didn't deliver it to my house. They wouldn't let my wife pick it up, so I had to go get it myself.

MS Coast · Oct 25, 2023

shb said:
Because it's a pain in the ***. I have to get all the information. Goto DHL, and they are very slow. Pay $50 for shipping. Wait two or three weeks for the "repair", even though nothing is broken. Pay $100 rip off fee to Philippine customs. Last time they didn't deliver it to my house. They wouldn't let my wife pick it up, so I had to go get it myself.

Ok, you're right. Put the drone on a shelf and leave it there. Done.

GadgetGuy · Oct 26, 2023

shb said:
No that's not true. I still have the same drone. DJI's repair cost was only $164. There was nothing wrong with the camera/gimbal.

My bad. However, that's the solution then. Just rinse and repeat! DJI apparently doesn't offer a self-unlocking solution, when it goes into turtle mode!

shb · Oct 27, 2023

GadgetGuy said:
My bad. However, that's the solution then. Just rinse and repeat! DJI apparently doesn't offer a self-unlocking solution, when it goes into turtle mode!

I tried to go over to the scene of the crime today. What Google maps shows as streets, are only walking paths. My electric bike, which is about 3 feet wide, almost got stuck. I had to lift it up, to go over a log, with the help of another guy.
I forgot my phone, so I got lost, and never made it to the location. I now see another route that looks good.
DJI emailed me. They told me to look for foreign objects or debris by the gimbal. They're so stupid. Don't they think I would of noticed that? They want me to reinstall the firmware using assistant. I don't think the people working in support know much about drones. They asked me what model it is, even though you can clearly see in the pictures I sent them it's a mavic 3 pro.

shb · Nov 9, 2023

Well, I fixed my drone today. This video helped me a lot.

First I took the covers off the pitch gimbal axis. It shows how to do that at 1:08 of this video. All you need is a sharp xacto knife, which I sent my wife to buy. The one we had at home was rusty and dull. Then you see a bunch of screws underneath. Unfortunately, my smallest Philips screwdriver wasn't small enough, so I had to go buy a smaller one. So I took 5 screws off one side, and two off the other side. It was loosened up a little, but still wouldn't turn forward. Then I took the 4 screws off the gimbal housing. After that I was able to rotate the gimbal, so it was facing forward like it should be. I put everything back together, and took it outside for a flight. It worked perfectly with no error messages. I forgot to change the nicked propeller, but I changed it after the flight. Now I'm charging my batteries so i can resume my reckless, out of signal range, waypoint missions!
BTW, i did finally make it over to the scene of the crime, and there was nothing concerning there.
Moral of the story. If you know your drone isn't really damaged, always try to fix it yourself. Even if you can't, you can always send it in later. And YouTube is your best friend.